And Peggy Noonan has officially joined the growing chorus of conservatives who don’t support the President and who can’t wait until he leaves the Oval Office. Disappointing. Just in time, Mike Gallagher writes a much-needed reminder about why we need to not abandon the President over the Iraq issue because of disagreement with him on other issues:

Why do conservatives believe that trashing the Bush Administration’s efforts on everything from this complicated war to a commutation of a vice-presidential aide will accomplish anything but give Democrats more ammunition against the GOP in 2008

Look, I’m as disappointed in this administration’s attempted amnesty for illegals as anyone. But I looked President Bush in the eye in the Oval Office and saw a man who truly believes in his heart that giving illegals a “path to citizenship” is the right thing to do.

I believe he’s wrong. But I know that this good and decent man believes he’s right.

So because of this issue, I’m supposed to abandon my president?

I’m expected to go on radio and TV and give miserable attack dogs like Dick Durbin more ways to say, “See — even Republican supporters of Bush are defecting!”?

From the day the bombs started dropping on Baghdad, President Bush kept telling us that nothing about this war would be easy. Our nation has never attempted something as bold as installing democracy in this troubled part of the world and attempting to make a country like Iraq stable enough so that they can handle their own terrorists without our intervention.

Simply put, the vast majority of Americans supported our country’s pre-emptive strike. The longer this battle rages, the more we see impatient Americans start complaining. I guess that’s what a society in a Tivo/Iphone era does.

And I certainly expect that from Democrats who blame George W. Bush for everything from hurricanes to health care.

But I think it takes some guts to stand behind a president who is doing what he believes to be right, even in the face of enormous opposition.

Liberals are emboldened by Republican-fueled criticism. And if good folks like [NRO’s] Byron York aren’t careful, we’ll be handing over the White House on a silver platter to Hillary or Barack. After all, just how far can Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson distance themselves from the Bush Administration?

24 thoughts on “What works in Iraq”

Liberals are emboldened by Republican-fueled criticism. And if good folks like [NRO’s] Byron York aren’t careful, we’ll be handing over the White House on a silver platter to Hillary or Barack.

This is like the Jim Geraghty/Hugh Hewitt spat from last week. York isn’t a toady for the GOP. He’s conservative, but I want him to tell it like he sees it. If it hurts the GOP then maybe the problem is with them.

The Republican party is a political party, it is not just about conservative who thinks he or she runs/owns the party. We hear about RINOs a lot, but in truth I think that is more descriptive of certain conservatives who think that their personal agenda is more important than anything else, the country, the party, whatever. If they feel that way they should change the name of the party from the Republican party {Lincoln’s party} and change it to the Conservatives Only Party…. which would give them a very small base.

Without Independents and Moderates Republicans can not win a majority, they can not win the White House. In the last election conservatives like Allen and Santorum lost because there were not enough conservatives voting to keep them in office.

Peggy Noonan was telling people to stay home in 2006 and let the Democrats win. How is that helpful? That is blackmail, extortion, that is all that is. Either we get what we want or we take our marbles and go home. That is how Clinton became President with a paltry 43% of the vote, because someone wanted to send a message.

Well I have a message for people like Peggy Noonan, if she wants to run something other than her mouth, let her run for office and actually be responsible and accountable for something. But she won’t do that. No, she is too busy being outraged while she runs interference for Hillary Clinton.

George Bush’s stance on immigration is more austere than Ronald Reagan’s was and yet people like Noonan have turned that man into something he never was. He honestly did sign an amnesty bill. There were no background checks that I remember, no fines, no back taxes. And I can remember conservatives saying the man was senile and stupid when he met with the Russian Premiere. I can also remember Reagan complaining about the “radical” conservatives who would rather starve than take part of a loaf. He made mention of the fact that sometimes there was just no dealing with them.

Now he is a saint.

George Bush’s attitudes on immigration are the same today as they were when he took office in 2000, they are the same today as they were when his approval rating was at 80%. If Noonan and her kind did not realize that then it was because they were not paying attention. Whose fault is that? They could have run Pat Buchanan and lost the election, but nooo, they ran someone who could win and then they tried to bully him into doing their bidding.

I will be honest, I have been voting Republican for years now and I support Bush. However, after watching the hissy fits over Miers, Dubai Ports, and immigration I have come to think there are some people on the right who are every bit as loony as Rosie O’Donnel ever thought about being.

I have just lost respect for Peggy,
Look, we all know that we don’t back Bush on everything but to stab him in the back now and play into the hands of the loons is absurd.
Bush has made major mistakes and should have long ago gone on the tube and admitted em but this is gettin outta hand and when hillary gets elected I’m outta here, the land down under is beckoning and looks better with each passing day of votes in the house and assine so called conservative commentators and columists writing against our President and party.
They are doing us a great disservice and I hope everybody is happy when we have socialized medicine and are taxed out the ying yang, ect., ect., ect.
I’m scared here guys, the dems are making headway on the backs of the Rhinos and the likes on Peggy and company.
As Laura Inghram puts it, SHUT UP AND SUPPORT YOUR BASE, don’t pull the dem crap and go out and stay crap just to get the latino vote and the war protesters botes, good God, get a grip.

Laura and people like her are part of the problem. Time and again people like Laura have yammered on as if being president was actually their job. It isn’t. No one would vote for them.

Their reaction to immigration was pure hysteria, just like their reaction to Miers and Dubai. Tell me, has Dubai Ports killed anyone yet? People like Malkin and her friends no as much about port terminals as I know about brain surgery. Which is nothing. Nada. Zilch. They are just running their mouths. They have no experience, practical or otherwise with any of this stuff.

And I read things on blogs and heard things on talk radio during the immigration “debate” that made me think I did not even want to be associated with these people. Whenever people can just make stuff up, make racist comments, make obscene cracks and somehow not be rebuked or called on it then they have no one but themselves to blame if the President does not jump on their bandwagon. I saw things on Lucianne and Free Republic that made me not even want to go back there. And I won’t. Ever. Or a lot of other places either. I won’t watch or listen to their shows, read their columns, visit their blogs. I am done with them.

When people can make cracks about Bush’s brown skinned nephew and no one even bothers to call them on it, it is no small wonder that Bush is not sucking up to that kind of nonsense. What president with a backbone would?

Terrye, let the immigration bill go. It was a bad bill, period. It was made in the cloak rooms in the middle of the night, with the help of people who believe that certain parts of America should belong to Mexico. It needed to be defeated, and thankfully it was. This continued rant you have about it being defeated is starting to look childish. – Lorica

Lorica, with all due respect to you, you saying that to Terrye would be just like her saying to you that you should stop talking about how happy you are that the bill failed. She has just as much right to complain about it as the bill’s supporters do to talk about how they’re glad it didn’t pass.

I myself still have issues with how everything went down – I am just choosing to stew over it internally right now.

My ability to let that go went out the window when I was called a traitor.

And your ability to ignore the kind of really nasty stuff that was out there in regards to the antics of some of the critics of this bill, the lies as well as the not so subtle ethnic and racial slurs that were being thrown around makes it hard to just forget.

BTW, LaRaza did not support that bill, neither did the ACLU or the AFL-CIO and to say that people who did support the bill wanted to see parts of America go back to Mexico is exactly the kind of paranoid and dishonest nonsense I was talking about.

I mean really, would Bush put himself through the kind of stuff he has had to go through with Democrats like Boxer just to track terrorists if he was going to give the southwest to Mexico. The entire idea is ludicrous.

No, you can forget me letting it go. I am pissed and disgusted and I will remember come the next election.

And considering the fact that the bill was all anyone talked about for weeks and weeks and it most if not all of it was on the internet, how can anyone say it was done in backrooms? When was the last time in mempory when any bill was met with this kind of scrutiny? Not to mention raving paranoia.

I don’t know enough about the bill to know if I liked it or not. But here’s my two cents:

Illegal immigration is a problem, and being here illegally you can’t just demand to be a citizen. Our country has had a system for over 200 years that it uses to decide who gets to come and who doesn’t. I’m sure the system is abused by some percentage, but hopefully as a whole it works.

On the other hand, if you are here filling a position that noone else would take, and assuming you are paying taxes, wouldn’t you expect some rights in this country, whether it be citizenship or something that acknowledges your right to be here?

And those that are serving in the United States military. I would say they are definitely earning their U.S. citizenship.

Taking 2 extremes,
1. Build a giant wall and send 12 million people home.
2. Just let anyone come to the United States and become a citizen.

There has to be something in the middle that makes sense.

How do you decide who gets to come/stay?

What is the benefit to the United States and it’s current citizens to let more/less people become citizens?

What is the best way to ensure that all workers pay their fair share of taxes so they are not a burden on other taxpayers?

At what rate should our nation be growing our population?

There’s probably a few hundred questions that need to be asked and answered genuinely, and bipartisanly, before drafting an immigration bill. I think we should draft one, but take our time about it, look at each issue regarding migration, and see what makes sense.

On the issue of illegal immigration, neither extreme will be satisfied. There will have to be compromise, and whoever is in charge of drawing it up, will be treated like an umpire at a little league baseball game.

This is just my opinion, go ahead and throw the styrofoam coffe cups at me.

Yes, the extremes will not be satisfied. Extremes never are. That is why we are where we are, with the Democrats controlling the House and hardliners making impossible demands.

However, when one side is only interested in demagoguing the issue for political purposes and do not really want to come up with any kind of solution then there will never be any kind of compromise.

Notice how there was not a viable alternative offered after this bill was killed. One would think that if the winners of this little tussle were really such a majority they could come up with something that looks like a solution. Such as what do we do differently and where do the resources to do it come from?

Nothing. Just Fred Thompson making some crack about Cubans being terrorists. There goes Florida if they are not careful. I do not want to see Hillary win, because if she does I shudder to think what President Hillary and super majority of Democrats in the Congress could come up with in a world in which people like Peggy Noonan have made the Republicans irrelevant.

Notice how there was not a viable alternative offered after this bill was killed. One would think that if the winners of this little tussle were really such a majority they could come up with something that looks like a solution. Such as what do we do differently and where do the resources to do it come from

Viable…thats an interesting word. So what you mean is that some alternatives were offered but you didn’t like them so they are not viable according to you.

Construct the wall.

Massive fines on employers (the laws are already there just enforce them)

Any business caught hiring illegals is forever banned from bidding on federal contracts.

Those are not viable?

Those are effective.

The President wasted precious capital he doesn’t have on an issue that wasn’t important. All he had to do was quietly start enforcing the laws. Instead he tried to deliver a bill that allows big business to continue screwing over illegals. Dumb.

I think we’re debating in the wrong post, but I like the debate so I’ll continue. Pierre is completely right. We have had laws on the books for a long time that have rarely been enforced.

Employers should be alot more diligent in thier hiring practices. The problem is, if you follow the rules and your competitor doesn’t, you’re competitor is able to hire people at a lower wage than you, and be more profitable.

It seems there is no penalty for breaking the rules, or no way of forcing employers to follow the rules.

Lorica, with all due respect to you, you saying that to Terrye would be just like her saying to you that you should stop talking about how happy you are that the bill failed.

Dear, I am not happy it did not pass. We do need to do something, this bill just wasn’t the answer. What my problem with Terrye is the constant need to make the “right” the bad guys in this. By her own admission

BTW, LaRaza did not support that bill, neither did the ACLU or the AFL-CIO

did not want to see this bill pass, but yet the continued rant is against the evil right. So it comes down to this, that Terrye has made this very personal, and she is hurt, well revenge is not a good politcial bedfellow. She is just going to wake up in bed with something more evil than she could imagine.

It is time to overcome. Since we don’t have new legislation it is time to start enforcing what we do have. Take it out on employers, you don’t have deport a single person. Illegals have been used as throw away people for the last decade, should they continue to be treated that way?? Why is it when Congress bellows about “we need new legistlation” it is nothing more than busy work. There is much more important things to focus on. If our present laws are followed this problem will take care of itself.

Terrye

America go back to Mexico is exactly the kind of paranoid and dishonest nonsense I was talking about.

I am not being paranoid or dishonest, many in Mexico believe that America stole this land from then in the Spanish American war and the Mexican American War. My concern has always been and always will be for the Peoples of Mexico and America. I hate with all my heart the number of people who have died trying to enter this country. I hate the stories I have read about families being cooked alive in container trucks or dying in the desert, or killed by border coyotes. I hate that our national parks all along the border are being burned as a distraction for illegals to enter into this country. How many of the border states are in states of emergency because their southern borders are trashed?? Good Fences make good Neighbors. Something needs to be done, but this bill isn’t it.

Terrye, I do apologize for my earlier comment about being childish. Sometimes I can be stupidly rash. With all my heart I hope and pray that you can overcome and help us during this time of need. – Lorica

did not want to see this bill pass, but yet the continued rant is against the evil right. So it comes down to this, that Terrye has made this very personal, and she is hurt, well revenge is not a good politcial bedfellow. She is just going to wake up in bed with something more evil than she could imagine.

Lorica, the people who are being the most vocal about ‘revenge’ are many of the people who were against this bill, who are withholding campaign contributions from the GOP and who are threatening to either not vote next year or want to try and kick out solid conservatives like Kyl and McConnell to ‘send a message’ as a form of revenge. The people who feel this way need to overcome, too, if we want any chance to win next year – if I may say so, even more so than the other side, because it’s not people like me and Terrye trying to punish the GOP for their stance on the immigration bill. I know personally for myself I am not against the GOP right now – my issue is with how certain conservatives treated people like me over this bill. I’ve disassociated myself with some conservatives but I haven’t disassociated myself with the Republican party.

Also, I don’t think the bill is going to come up again before the next election. After the way things went this last time, no one is going to want to touch it.

It’s a free country, of course, and people are going to do what they want to do in order to send a message to their reps – I just don’t think what I’ve been seeing and hearing about related to punishing the GOP is a good idea. As I’ve written before, if supporters of the GOP carry through with their threats, the immigration bill we get after the Dems take even more of a majority next year and a Dem president is elected will make this last one look like the work of a pure genius. We do need to enforce what we have on the books, but we also need to abandon this talk of ‘punishing’ the GOP next year by staying home and/or trying to kick out solid conservatives – for reasons I’ve already stated.

I also should add that I wouldn’t blame anyone for wanting to kick out Reps and Senators like Lindsay Graham, simply because of his attitude towards the bill’s opponents as well as the fact that he is a RINO, anyway. But solid conservatives like Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell should not be targeted simply because they weren’t marching 100% lockstep with how most conservatives felt about this bill. We need good Senators like the two of them to fight against the Democrats. They’ve done a good job of it on most issues so far. Losing them in the Senate would have disastrous consequences.

But solid conservatives like Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell should not be targeted simply because they weren’t marching 100% lockstep with how most conservatives felt about this bill. We need good Senators like the two of them to fight against the Democrats.

You almost have a point…except that actually we already have laws on the books. Those two didn’t HAVE to do anything they could have simply gone to the President and asked him if he had lost his mind. With approval ratings in the dumpster heading to the fire this President in the middle of a war of existential import figures what the heck lets really tick off the base. After all its more important to please big business than it is to keep what support we do have and fight the darn war.

There was simply no reason to do this…and if Republicans cannot figure out that whenever Kennedy backs a bill they should run to the hills then maybe we need to clean them out. One of the most sickening images of that fight was seeing Republicans laughing with that murderer. The Republicans are completely out of touch with the mainstream Republicans. Mainstream republicans do not advocate breaking laws, or forgiving those who do, they don’t advocate doubling the size of government bureacracies like the Dept of Education, they don’t chum around with folks like Ted Kennedy.

Oh and before I forget…why is it always put on the conservatives that we will bear the responsibility if the Republicans lose? Why don’t the Republicans who do dumb things bear some responsibility? Why don’t the Republicans who didn’t raise Defense Spending to at LEAST the levels of Clintons first three years bear responsibility for losing the vote? Why don’t Republicans bear the reasponsibility for NOT cutting the level of Government, remember thats what we are supposed to be about. Rockefeller republicans were the ones who like Big Government and their losing streak was pretty impressive, why do some young Republicans think that we will start winning following that losing strategy? Why don’t we blame Republicans who partner with Ted Kennedy when we are searching around for folks to blame. Remember they are supposed to reflect our beliefs…not the beliefs of the Liberal Left Wing Democrats.

But solid conservatives like Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell should not be targeted simply because they weren’t marching 100% lockstep with how most conservatives felt about this bill. We need good Senators like the two of them to fight against the Democrats.

Pierre:

You almost have a pointâ€¦except that actually we already have laws on the books.

Oh no, I do have a point and one that can’t be so easily dismissed by your anti-bill dogma – whether we have laws on the books or not is immaterial to the point I’m making about how many conservatives who opposed this bill treated those who weren’t against it 100%, as well as the way those same conservatives are talking about “punishing” good Senators like Jon Kyl and Mitch McConnell. If either of those two get defeated next year, I will not blame Senators like Lindsay Graham (who is one of the Senators who needs to go) but people who wanted to punish the likes of Kyl and McConnell because they aren’t party puritans* on the issue of immigration.

Oh and before I forgetâ€¦why is it always put on the conservatives that we will bear the responsibility if the Republicans lose? Why don’t the Republicans who do dumb things bear some responsibility? Why don’t the Republicans who didn’t raise Defense Spending to at LEAST the levels of Clintons first three years bear responsibility for losing the vote?

Uh, who said they didn’t? But the people who apparently don’t think they will bear some responsibility are people who think it’s their duty to punish good Senators like Kyl and McConnell. The fact that those people want to blame everyone but themselves reminds me of Democrats who like to blame everything under the sun on Bush even though most of the stuff they blame him for can be blamed on themselves. RINOs like Graham need to go. Solid conservatives like Kyl and McConnell we need. Punishing them is like committing political suicide. I will be watching their races very closely next year and praying that the party puritans* on the issue of immigration don’t carry through with their threats.

* By party puritans I don’t mean everyone who opposed this bill but the people who treated conservatives like me as though we were traitors for not toeing the party line, who called the President “Jorge” etc.

After all its more important to please big business than it is to keep what support we do have and fight the darn war.

If there are people who are no longer supporting the war on terror due to this immigration bill, they really need to gain control over their emotions. They are flat out wrong. Also, my problem isn’t with the President, my problem isn’t with anyone who supported this bill. My problem is with this do nothing, all talk, no action group of hypocrites who run Congress. I don’t trust them, and I think many of the left in Congress are suffering with varying degrees of BDS. How Reid is a Senator, and as completely stupid as he is, is quite astonishing. I am actually amazed by men like Kyl and McConnell that they would try to work with these people. I have posted many times that I would have washed my hands of them from the onset, but I can be abit fatalistic, when it comes to people who are hard to get along with. I don’t like to work with stubbornly stupid people.

I do believe that come 2008, the people who are seeking some retribution will have forgotten their anger and come to their senses. We need strong conservative leadership, and my largest problem with President Bush has been and always will be that he only liked to back moderates. Well I am sorry, but it has happened time and time again, once a person gets elected and heads to DC, their politics move left. If you are half way there already what is stopping you from going the other way, Graham is a perfect example.

I also hope and pray that those in Congress who want to keep their jobs, will get down to the hard work that has been waiting attention for how many years now?? Healthcare was a Hillary Clinton issue, what has she done since 1993?? Social Security, Border Protection, why is it these guys let stuff fester until it starts to rot then decide it is “time for NEW legislation”??? Immigration has been a problem for over 10 years, but nothing ever was done about it until it hit critical mass. Now this Government has no choice but to start following the laws that everyone should be following to begin with. Is it going to take a couple of nukes going off in some of our cities to wake these people up to our need for border protection?? You think you will have a bad immigration bill under a Dem administration, try after we have another attack.

There were just so much more important things to work on than “new” immigration, like another waste of time troop withdraw proposal, what are we on the 4th or the 5th?? But by God we got the minimum wage bill into law!!!! Still waiting on that 40 hour work week there Nancy. – Lorica